The ancients wrote books and said that they attached importance to the role of pictures. Zuo Tu You Shu, Zuo Tu You Shi and Yi Tu You Shi are the fine traditions of China's books, with pictures and texts that complement each other.
There are countless carved books in China in the past dynasties, many of which are accompanied by exquisite illustrations, which are not only a valuable historical and cultural wealth, but also vivid materials for studying ancient politics, culture and folk customs.
First, the origin and appearance of woodcut illustrations of ancient books in China.
China's ancient books, in terms of their production forms, can be roughly divided into two periods: writing books and printing books. Before the Han Dynasty, people copied books on natural carriers such as bamboo slips and wooden slips or silk fabrics such as silk. 1942, a silk painting was unearthed in the Chu Tomb of the Warring States Period in Changsha, Hunan. It is painted with color images and descriptions similar to bronze inscriptions, and there are twelve statues around it, symbolizing twelve months. This is a relic of China's early silk illustrations.
The so-called woodcut illustration refers to the reproduction of the painting obtained by woodcut printing. Block printing, also known as full-page printing, refers to the method of engraving words or pictures on a whole board or other materials and then printing them with ink. In this way, a large number of copies of illustrations and drawings can be obtained. Because ancient books are mainly pears and dates, these illustrations are prints, also called woodcuts.
After the invention of block printing, it was first applied to the printing of Buddhist scriptures and illustrations. Master Xuanzang, a famous monk in the Tang Dynasty, once carved and printed Buddha statues. At the end of the Tang Dynasty, Feng Zhi quoted Louis from the Monk Garden in the Three Records of Yunxian, saying: "Xuanzang printed the image of Pu Xian on his back paper and put it in all directions, which was never published every year." It can be seen that the number is still quite large.
The existing older block-printed artwork is Dalagni Jing, which was unearthed in the Tang Dynasty tomb near Wangjianglou outside East Gate of Chengdu 1953. This one was found in the silver bracelet worn on the tomb's main arm, engraved with ancient Sanskrit Buddhist scriptures, with small Buddha statues printed around and in the center. According to textual research, the book was published in Tang Suzong in the second year of coming to Germany (AD 757).
Among the remains of Tang Dynasty prints, another important work is the title page painting of King Kong Prajna Paramita Sutra published in the ninth year of Tang Xiantong (AD 868). This piece of paper is about 16 feet long and consists of six pages. At the end of the article, a picture of "giving a tree to an isolated garden" was drawn. The whole picture is gorgeous, the layout is safe, and the lines are delicate. It is a masterpiece with mature carving skills. At the end of the volume, there is a record of "Xian Tong Wang Jun, April 15, 1999, worshipping his parents", which is the earliest extant masterpiece of woodcut illustrations and Buddhist prints with exact publication date in the world. China printed illustrations for books in the form of block printing, which was at least 500 years earlier than Europe. This painting is the most famous masterpiece in China's early block printing illustrations.
In the early Tang Dynasty, the emperor adopted the policy of paying equal attention to Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism, and Buddhism developed rapidly. Empress Wu Zetian changed the Tang Dynasty to Zhou Dynasty, and borrowed the Great Cloud Sutra as a symbol that the hostess was ordered by heaven, claiming that her "Longxing" was a prophecy of Buddhism and a great development of Buddhism. At that time, statues and temples were built all over the country; Scholars have become a common practice. From this point of view, there must have been a large number of Buddhist prints at that time. Only because of the long history, there are not many prints in the Tang Dynasty. In addition, in the fifth year of Tang Huichang (AD 845), Tang Wuzong wrote a letter to destroy the Buddha, and all the engraved books were robbed of ashes. Buddhist versions handed down to this day are like auspicious feathers, which are hard to find. However, according to the literature records and the existing objects, it can be preliminarily affirmed that after the invention of China's block printing, it was first widely used in the printing of Buddhist scriptures, and Buddhist works became the earliest category in the history of block printing and illustration art in China.
Two. Illustrations of Five Dynasties, Song Dynasty and Yuan Dynasty serve as a link between the past and the future.
The Five Dynasties after the Tang Dynasty were a period of great turmoil, great division and great chaos in the history of China, and also a period of relative decline in the history of art, but the art of printmaking and illustration, which began in the Tang Dynasty, made great progress in the turmoil.
There is still only one Buddhist theme left over from the Five Dynasties, and the number is very small, but compared with the Tang Dynasty, there are still more. Among them, the most noteworthy are the statue of the great sage Vishamun and the statue of Guanyin Bodhisattva. Both pictures were published in the last four years of the Jin Dynasty (AD 947), and the latter was inscribed with the words "Written by Cao, the school history of our army" and signed by the seal engraver. This is the earliest carving illustration in existence, and all the time and place, the names of publishers and sculptors are available. The former is the earliest extant engraving and illustration of Guanyin, which shows that although they are all Buddhist works of art, they are far richer in theme selection than those in the Tang Dynasty.
In 960 AD, the Northern Song Dynasty was established, which conquered the north, the south and the whole country. In the Song Dynasty, literary records were valued, block printing developed in an all-round way, and block printing and illustration art also made great progress.
The remains of prints and illustrations in the Song Dynasty are still dominated by Buddhism. Among them, there are four illustrations in Song Taizong Times magazine "Interpretation of Imperial Collection", which is the oldest existing landscape painting; Four pictures (existing in Japan), such as Maitreya Buddha and Manjushri Bodhisattva, published during the reign of Emperor Yongxi, are all excellent works. Mantras of Datura in Dalagni and Dalagni are also world-famous heritages. For example, the Manjusri Guide Picture Zan published in Lin 'an in the Southern Song Dynasty, with the plate at the top of the page, is the earliest existing large-scale Buddhist illustration group painting, and it can also be said to be the oldest comic book handed down from generation to generation. Biography of Women published by Jian 'an Yu Qin in the Southern Song Dynasty is a well-deserved masterpiece. Xu Kang's "Past as a Dream" commented: "Since Xiu Xiang's books, the Biography of Lienv published in the Song Dynasty is the best." The layout of this book is similar to that of Manjusri Guide Tuzan.
Liao, Jin and Xixia, which fought against the Song Dynasty, were all political powers established by ethnic minorities in China. They have also made remarkable achievements in the field of printmaking and illustration art. For example, Yanjing, the capital of Liao country, is an important creation place of northern Buddhist engraving and illustration art.1In July, 974, a large number of Buddhist scriptures of Liao dynasty were found in Sakyamuni Pagoda of Buddha Temple in Yingxian County, Shanxi Province, including more than ten illustrations, all of which are fine works. The inscription and painting of Zhao Cheng Cang (also known as Jin Cang), a tripitaka in the Jin Dynasty, is a rare structure in Buddhist seal cutting illustrations, with neat and powerful seal cutting, profound and vigorous background and distinctive characters.
From the above, it is not difficult to see that the woodcut illustrations in the Five Dynasties, the Song Dynasty and the Liao and Jin Dynasties have made obvious progress in carving skills, carving teams, painting areas, performance contents and techniques, which laid a good foundation for the great development of woodcut illustrations in the future.
The Yuan Dynasty is also an important era in the history of block printing in China. Compared with the Song Dynasty, the illustrations of books published in the Yuan Dynasty are not only inferior, but also improved. As far as the religious territory is concerned, the paintings on the villages completed in the Yuan Dynasty are neat and beautiful, far exceeding those in the Song Dynasty. More importantly, China's illustrations of various books began to appear in the Yuan Dynasty. For example, The Story of the West Chamber published in Yuan Dynasty is the earliest extant illustration of traditional Chinese opera, Five Kinds of All-phase Pinghua is the earliest published illustration of Pinghua, and Shi Wenguang Ji is the beginning of a picture book, which is worthy of being a masterpiece in the history of printmaking illustrations. Therefore, the Song and Yuan Dynasties is an important era in the art history of printmaking and illustration in China.
Third, the dazzling illustrations of the Ming Dynasty.
In the Ming Dynasty, China's book publishing industry developed in an all-round way, with many engravers and workshops, and the art of engraving and illustration entered a golden age of prosperity. Its characteristics are mainly manifested in the following aspects.
A hundred flowers blossom, unprecedented prosperity, which is the first feature of Ming Dynasty printmaking illustrations. After the exploration of Tang, Song and Yuan dynasties, in the Ming Dynasty, the art of woodcut illustrations not only expanded unprecedentedly in the production area, but also gradually formed three major artistic schools: Jian 'an, Jinling and Xin 'an. Other woodcut illustrations in Wulin, Suzhou and Xing Wu also have their own characteristics, showing a vibrant scene around three major schools, such as the starry arches of the moon. Various schools and regions compete for beauty, but they communicate and promote each other, which provides good conditions for the development of China printmaking art to a wider world.
Various forms, each excelling at winning the game, is the second major feature of the Ming Dynasty woodcut illustration art, which is mainly manifested in a wide variety of illustrations, such as double-sided connection, multi-sided connection, moonlight connection and so on. In addition, there is a one-sided way in the Song and Yuan Dynasties, which provides sufficient choices for painters to use similar shapes.
This is the third feature of the Ming Dynasty printmaking and illustration art, and it is also the biggest feature of its artistic style. Generally speaking, the early illustrations of Jian 'an and Jinling School have a rough and simple folk art style. Since the rise of Huizhou prints, it has become the mainstream of illustration art in Ming Dynasty. The prints of Jian 'an and Jinling have also moved closer to it and merged with it, making China's illustration art more dazzling. This is probably because after the middle and late Wanli period of the Ming Dynasty, a large number of scholars participated in the creation of illustrations, which made illustrations not only the binding of books and illustrations of words, but also the fun of literati's desks. The participation of intellectuals has played a decisive role in improving the social status of illustrations and promoting their qualitative and quantitative leap.
The specialization of illustrators is the fourth feature of the art of printmaking and illustration in the Ming Dynasty ... Many artists left their names in the Ming Dynasty, such as,, Cai Chonghuan, He Ying, Lu, Xiong, Zheng and so on. , are famous at that time. These people worked hard and left behind countless works, such as Wang Wenheng's works that can still be seen today, that is, no less than dozens. Some famous great painters, such as Tang Yin, Qian Gu, Ding and Chen Hongshou, also draw illustrations. Sculptures in the Ming Dynasty are as numerous as stars. For example, there are nearly 300 engravers in Huangchuan, Shexian County, Anhui Province, who are the main engravers of Huizhou School. Their father and son have been handed down from generation to generation, and they have made outstanding contributions to the spread of Huizhou printmaking style. Others such as, Guo Zhuoran, Wu Linxiang, Wang, Su Ming, etc. , are all masters. Such a huge team of sculptors has become the talent base for the great development of carving and illustration art in Ming Dynasty.
Striving for perfection in technique and advancing by leaps and bounds is the fifth feature of the art of printmaking and illustration in Ming Dynasty. The early illustrations of Jian 'an School and Jinling School are still slightly rough in technique, and the technique has not changed much. After the rise of Huizhou school, this situation has been completely improved, and everyone is comfortable and skilled. At the same time, sculptors also pay attention to summing up the theory. For example, Lu Yujiu's "Huizhou Engraving Worker" said: "Engraving on a wooden board is not unusual, and the kung fu is deep and fine. If you want to steadily increase the thread with double knives, you must look at it and carve it more. Look more and think more, everything is smart. There are only eighteen kinds of martial arts, and sculptors are never too old to learn. Holding a knife has its own principle of holding a knife, and the printing ability is high or low. □□□□□□□□□ Great event, first carve people and carve mountains and rivers. " Conciseness is itself a textbook about seal cutting.
Inheriting the past and bringing forth the new is the sixth major feature of the Ming Dynasty printmaking illustration art. The most noteworthy thing here is the combination of overprinter technology and printmaking art, and overprinter of color printmaking has appeared. At first, in order to obtain a color printing plate, the method of painting different colors on a printing plate according to the content of the picture and covering the paper for printing at one time was called veneer coloring method. This method existed in the Yuan Dynasty. On the basis of this method, or inspired by it, there has been a method of copying color pictures according to different colors, carving each color into small editions, separating the colors in different editions, and overlapping or printing one by one, that is, overlapping. Because its version looks like a nail, it is also called "version". Later, he invented the method of embedding convex and concave plates to arch the paper and make the picture full of three-dimensional sense, which is called "arch flower". Overprinting illustrations, bright colors, appropriate depth, between yin and yang to the back, can be confused. There are many illustrations of painting spectrum in Ming Dynasty, such as Hu's Painting Spectrum of Ten Bamboo Grottoes and his Painting Spectrum of Ancient Notes, which are all excellent works.
Of course, Ming dynasty prints, especially late Ming dynasty engravings and illustrations are also unsatisfactory. If we overemphasize the exquisiteness and richness of the works, sometimes it seems not as exciting and interesting as the early prints. Formulaic and stylized expressions also restrict its development. However, this can't hide the defects of. Both in quantity and quality, Ming Dynasty illustrations represent the highest achievement of China's ancient illustration art, and are also in a leading position in the world. Even compared with the western copperplate illustrations, which are famous for their exquisiteness, they are even worse in general.
Four. Illustrations of Books in Qing Dynasty from Prosperity to Decline
After the Qing dynasty entered the customs, it adopted an extremely autocratic cultural policy, forbidding and burning books, and repeatedly pushing the prison of words. In order to avoid disasters, scholars love to abridge parts and are diligent in textual research. "The city gate caught fire, which hurt the fish in the pool", and the flourishing art of printmaking and illustration in Ming Dynasty gradually declined.
The decline of woodcut illustration art in Qing Dynasty is a process, and it didn't collapse overnight. In the early Qing Dynasty, there were still some exquisite works, such as the illustrations of Yangzhou Dream and Qin Louyue engraved by Jingdezhen Baocheng, which were exquisite and elegant, and were considered as the arms of the emblem version; Romance of Sui and Tang Dynasties by Sixuetang, Biography of Immortals by Wu Sanduozhai, Biography of Ancient and Modern Woman, Ten Songs by Li Weng, etc. It is not inferior to Huizhou masterpieces in the prosperous period. Some famous sculptors, such as Huang Shunji, Liu Rong, Shang Tang, Tang Yi, Cai Sihuang and Tan Yikui. , did not live up to the reputation of famous seal cutting, so that seal cutting illustrations still flourished for a short time before being cleaned up and refined.
The first declining illustration category in Qing Dynasty is precisely the most popular novel and opera illustration in Ming Dynasty. This kind of works, the previous banned books bear the brunt. In the fifty-third year of Kangxi (A.D. 17 14), Emperor Kangxi issued an imperial edict: "To govern the world, you must first be upright and have good customs. To be upright and have good customs, we must worship Confucian classics. All obscene words in the novel should be strictly prohibited from being destroyed. " In this case, the illustrations of novels and operas are naturally doomed. After dry armour, this kind of works are rarely exquisite and impressive, which is why.
In fact, the rulers of the Qing dynasty hated books and pictures that were unfavorable to the Qing dynasty, not the art of illustration itself. On the contrary, illustrations, with their directness and vividness, can be used as a tool to praise the "holy dynasty". Therefore, there are many beautiful illustrations in the books carved by the Qing government. The Qing government carved books, mostly by Wu Yingtang, and the illustrations of such books were called temple seals. Among them are Poems of Emperor Farming and Weaving, Poems of Yuanmingyuan, Poems of Thirty-six Scenes in Summer Resort, and Collection of Mohists. They are all representative works of temple prints. Temple prints are polished with a fine brush, with beautiful composition, variety and excellent printing quality. The imperial palace engraved books attached so much importance to illustrations that the previous dynasty did not. However, these works are not as smart and elegant as folk works because they worship the imperial court and unilaterally pursue prudence and stability.
Under the rulers' high-pressure policy on operas and novels, the two categories of folk printmaking illustrations in the Qing Dynasty-figure painting and landscape painting-have made great progress. The heroes of Lingyange, without bispectrum, the biography of the late laughter hall, the whole picture of the water margin and the portrait of the Three Kingdoms are all excellent structures in this regard. At the end of the Ming Dynasty, politics was dark, civil servants were chaotic, military commanders were weak, and the country eventually perished. Han intellectuals hope that people like ancient sages and ministers will come out to reverse Gankun and rebuild mountains and rivers. The development of figure painting in the early Qing Dynasty was related to this mentality.
Landscape illustrations in Qing Dynasty (mainly local records illustrations) have made unprecedented brilliant achievements. Xiao Yun, a great painter, painted this picture of peaceful mountains and rivers with dignified brushwork and gloomy atmosphere. What he entrusted was Li Yi's mourning for the beautiful mountains and rivers of the old country in the Ming Dynasty, which was strongly nationalistic and patriotic. In ancient landscape illustrations, it is unprecedented and never came again. The emperor of the Qing Dynasty loved traveling very much, and drew various illustrations such as "Southern Tour" and "Journey to the West", which were good on the top and bad on the bottom. Therefore, the illustrations in the books "Qingshan Shui Ji You" are extremely rich and have made great achievements. Illustrations in local chronicles are also related to this. However, most of these illustrations are influenced by the temple edition, and they can't see the majestic atmosphere in the Taiping landscape map.
Overprint color printing illustrations developed in the Ming Dynasty also had a good structure in the Qing Dynasty. The Picture Biography of Mustard Garden published by Shen during the Kangxi period of Qing Dynasty, which is still regarded as the standard of painting, has dozens of editions in one painting. "West Lake Story" is a color overprint of Wang Ya in Jinling, with rich and exquisite pictures, and it is also a major landscape in the overprint.
After Jiaqing in the Qing Dynasty, there were not many excellent works of woodcut illustrations, except for a few illustrations of biographical books and travel notes, few people could be described and few breakthroughs were made in techniques.
It is worth mentioning that during the Guangxu period of the Qing Dynasty, western lithography was introduced to China. Lithography printing pictures is convenient and labor-saving, and the cost is low. It soon replaced the carving form and became the main method of printing book illustrations. There are many beautiful lithographs in the late Qing Dynasty. Although this is no longer a woodcut, it is still a precious cultural heritage in terms of techniques and composition, but it is beyond the scope of this article, so I will not repeat it.